DIARY – WORCESTER – SUNDAY 08 JUNE 2008

This was my 2nd trip to the races and my friend, Mark, decided to accompany me on this occasion. Mark suggested we go to Worcester by train via Paddington. Choc had two rides today, in the 1st and 3rd races, both hurdle events. Worcester is a left-handed course, with brush style hurdles.

We caught the train from our local station at around 08:10. There were engineering works on the cross London link this weekend, so the train pulled into St Pancras, alongside the Eurostar trains. We caught the underground Circle Line to Paddington and then, after purchasing a coffee, the train to Hereford, via Worcester. The journey as far as Oxford was good, but then the line becomes single track through the Cotswolds to Worcester.

Having arrived at Worcester in good time we went to the Wetherspoon pub for lunch before walking down to the course, via a slightly convoluted route as Mark had been to the City the weekend before and thought he knew the way! It was Family Day at the course and we saw the Red Devils skydiving in overhead. We walked across the course and through the car park to reach the turnstiles, where we purchased Tattersalls tickets and race-cards.

As we had arrived very early, we walked down past the grandstand area, past the hospitality tents, along the side of the paddock to the pre-parade ring, just to get our bearings. The Weighing Room resembles a glorified shed, and is located just behind the Parade Ring. As Mark burns easily, we then returned to the Tattersalls stand area to gain some respite before the horses came into the pre-parade ring and we had something to view.

There were two greys in the first race, King of the Beers, which Mark bet on because of the name, and Silivri, a grey mare, which Choc was riding. Richard Lee and connections were stood in front of us, so I got a good view of Choc before he mounted, and I believe I could actually hear him speaking. He passed in front of us before mounting, and cantering down to the start, away to our left. The mare ran okay but was unplaced. The unplaced horses are unsaddled on track, where Choc spent ages after the race explaining how Silivri had run, and walked back through the paddock to the Weighing Room after all the other jockeys had returned.

Choc’s second ride, That’s Confidential, had lots of owners. Again a disappointment as the horse could only finish 7th. Again, having spent time talking with the owners at the end of the race, Choc walked back through the chute just as Mark was returning from the grandstand area. I’d stayed near the Parade Ring throughout the race.

As Mark was afraid we would miss our return train, and because they ran infrequently, we left just before the last race. We were lucky to get seats, as the planned train was faulty so was replaced by a 3 carriage one, with no buffet car! The train became very crowded, with standing room only, as we travelled through the Cotswolds back to London.

Again we caught the underground Circle Line to St Pancras then, after wandering around the M & S Food outlet to pass the time before departure, we caught a fairly crowded train back to our local station. I reached home just after 21:00.